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Armory: Empyrean Realms

Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal

5.0/5.0

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Metavania Music
by Craig Hartranft,  11.22.2013

Six years was simply too long to wait for a new, and second, Armory album, Empyrean Realms. These guys are just to good at what they do, which is creating some very fine American melodic power metal. Whatever is to be done well, should be done right no matter how much time and energy it takes.

Armory:: in black.

To make the first obvious observation, Armory as a band and Empyrean Realms as music rivals anything done by European power metal bands, where the genre still survives and by which some will make comparisons. I just did. Armory has the strength of solid arrangements based upon melodic lines, epic and melodic twin guitar leads, deep sturdy rhythm section, which can keep the pace steady or galloping, and a sufficient accent of synthesizers. Armory is also toying with some obvious progressive metal nuances with key and tempo changes, without becoming mesmerizing complex. This ain't math metal.

Empyrean Realms brings nine songs, one of which is an instrumental, Horologium. While most are galloping power metal, those tempo changes find their way into many songs like Beyond the Horizon or Elements of Creation by example. Fundamentally, all those aforementioned characteristics permeate every song. There is not single wasted note or a musician and instrument not fully engaged and complimenting another. Love the guitar work. The simple result is that every song is terrific, and I won't bore you with specific details when you could be buying the digital download right now. Yes, Empyrean Realms is that good. Perhaps there is one slight caveat: sometimes vocalist Adam Kurland gets a bit pummeled in the mix as within Dreamstate or Fate Seeker. But this does not diminish the grandness of the whole. Empyrean Realms is quite recommended. Now go buy the album.

Armory - Empyrean Realms (New Album Sampler 2013)

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Armory's long awaited Empyrean Realms was worth the wait: this is some of the finest American melodic power you will find on the planet.

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The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]